Esmeralda Santiago’s story is as vivid and evocative as her name. The oldest of eleven children, she began life in a rippled zinc shack in rural Puerto Rico, where the coqui tree frogs sang at night in mango groves. At the age of thirteen, she left this magical landscape when her mother gathered her huge family and set off for New York with dreams of a better life
In a decaying Brooklyn tenement, forbidden to go outside near the dreaded “projects,” Esmeralda kept her bothers and sisters enthralled with stories while her determined mother supported them all by working in a bra factory. The chance (a long shot) that would eventually lead to Harvard and a career comes at an audition for the High School of Performing Arts, delivering a dramatic monologue of which neither she nor the judges can understand one word.
Esmeralda Santiago’s Puerto Rican childhood is one of sorcery, smoldering war between the sexes, and high comedy. Hers is a portrait of a harsh but enchanted world that can never be reclaimed.
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